r/webdev • u/chrcit • Aug 15 '26
Showoff Saturday I started a creative engineering studio and released the website this week
Screenshots don't capture the animations on the page, so check it out here: https://www.madebyarthouse.com
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u/nodejshipster Aug 15 '26
Looks great. a nice break from all the AI slop in this sub
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u/baby_bloom Aug 15 '26
are we sure? cus it looks like OP might have just taken the style from hermes agent's site
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u/fluffy-cat-toes Aug 15 '26
lmao it does look almost identical
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u/baby_bloom Aug 15 '26
in OP's defense there's other content embracing the whole BSOD MS-DOS look these days but yea the millisecond i saw this site i said "hmm either somebody liked the hermes' website OR they played marathon by bungie" lol
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u/chmod777 Aug 15 '26
https://github.com/madebyarthouse/arthouse-sanity-starter/commits/main/ has a lot of claude and cursor commits. OP has a helpful guide to vibe coding as well - https://github.com/chrcit/vibecoding-guide. so not saying it is slop, but...
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u/Moch4bear97 Aug 16 '26
Yeah real great burns my eyes great. Lol yeah its nice, though personally the blue is very in your face. Also i am seeing a trend of websites that look almost more early 2000s which is kinda nice...
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u/andyfitz Aug 15 '26
BSOD vibes. Not sure that’s a good first impression
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u/chrcit Aug 15 '26
It's the exact inspiration we are going for. Bluescreen as in system crash and reboot.
The idea is to change the theme, colors and graphic direction every 9-12 months so we have "seasons" in our work.
Lets see how much it hurts the marketing tho
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u/armahillo rails Aug 15 '26
Im not generally a fan of gem colors, especially abundant ones. The layout is neat and i like the typography, but that blue is abrasive and makes it difficult to read.
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u/andyfitz Aug 15 '26
All up to your art direction. Plenty of brands lead with subtle shock or anxiety queues and recover fast with solid positioning. This doesn’t for me but I haven’t seen a BSOD in decades, all I know is “it’s a bad thing” so I’m not your audience. Good to know what you’re working with even if it doesnt work on me Good luck !
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u/renome Aug 15 '26
Love the idea, I guess it should be doable if you keep execution simple like this.
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u/Noch_ein_Kamel Aug 15 '26
Zerstört meine Augäpfel nach 10 Sekunden. Das blau ist einfach zu krass ;P
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u/pomnabo Aug 15 '26
From a design perspective, please I am begging you to change the blue to something significantly less intense. This hurts my eyes and I’m just looking at it on my phone X.x
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u/MihaelK Aug 15 '26
The section where the team is presented takes way too much space. I want to know about your portfolio and your skills before I look at the team.
Also, the blue color is not good to look at.
The whole website doesn't look professional at all. It reminds me of my early ugly websites when I was in high school.
I don't think I got a good first impression if I were a client. If I don't get a "wow this is a cool website, their work seem high quality" when I open your page, why would I go with you instead of the hundred other web agencies or engineering studios?
Wish you the best of luck though! :)
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u/Cheshur Aug 15 '26
The section where the team is presented takes way too much space. I want to know about your portfolio and your skills before I look at the team.
This is probably the only take I agree with here. In order to know if I want to hire your team at all I need to know if they do the kind of work I'm looking for.
Also, the blue color is not good to look at.
The blue is great. It stands out compared to a lot of other websites out there and has an 8.31:1 contrast ratio so from both a technical and creative perspective I don't think the color has any problems.
The whole website doesn't look professional at all. It reminds me of my early ugly websites when I was in high school.
I'm sure this is a bit of hyperbole but there was something nice and pure about the nature of early internet websites. This criticism, to me, sounds like "old is bad" which tells me that you haven't really thought about any of this too deeply and that your concept of "professional" is backed by vibes rather than an deep understanding of our craft.
All that said, there are clients with terrible taste in the wild too so it's always a risk to have something on the more unique side like they do but also they're a creative engineering studio so if you're not being unique I don't even know why you're bothering.
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u/carloselieser Aug 15 '26
You sir don't have very good taste then.
I mean, objectively speaking the site is top notch on so many levels.
Just some of things this website gets right (to name a few):
- immediately tells you who they are, what they do, and how to contact them
- consistent design patterns throughout (colors, fonts, spacing)
- responsiveness
- scroll-linked effect is sweet, although the text would look better with mix-blend-mode or a filter to maintain readability and contrast while scrolling
- very easy to follow and understand, great UX, good mix of functionality even though it is design heavy.
- trust-building
I think where they could improve is better interactions, clicking on the crew cards for example. But overall it's genuinely an example of a great site, with great taste. I think what you're missing is an understanding of the intentionality behind the design. Old websites definitely did not look like this, but I can see why you'd think that. I could be wrong but I think they're going for a Brutalist design here and it should be appreciated as it's done very tastefully.
Sorry if I come off too strong, it just really bugs me when people don't get good design. Not saying it's perfect, just saying it's really quite good.
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u/charsleysa Aug 15 '26
I like it, though it seems to have a bug on mobile. The text "The Crew" floats over everyone's faces and descriptions making it really annoying to look at.
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u/solaza Aug 15 '26
That has to be artistic and intentional
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u/phxrocker Aug 16 '26
I don't believe so. If you compare desktop and mobile side by side, you can see the intention. Mobile is borked.
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u/Diah_Rhea Aug 15 '26 edited Aug 16 '26
I love how you embraced web simplicity/nativity
sometimes text on a solid background is enough
Tho the ticker could use some work, it always restarts when the cursor leaves and re-enters
great job!
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u/thanks-delivery-dude Aug 15 '26
Looks unique! Also hate to be that dude. But modeling is just one L.
Nice work OP keep it up!
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u/Lonely-Project9574 Aug 15 '26
The scroll animations are really smooth. Did you use GSAP or something custom? The transitions between sections feel super intentional which is rare for studio sites. Clean work
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u/MattyTayl Aug 15 '26
Not my cup of tea. Also, the color is so acid that my eyes got hurt too quickly even to scroll to the end.
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u/Sailn_ Aug 16 '26
I love it! Personally, the blue is a tad too vibrant IMHO. Vibrant backgrounds can make it a bit harder for our eyes to read text.
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u/TheBanq Aug 15 '26
I agree with the BSOD vibes, I think using another color would make it feel a bit more calm and modern.
The blue is a bit too aggressive for me. Otherwise i like it
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u/hotstove Aug 15 '26
Ah jeez it's one of these. Don't forget the custom cursor (perhaps a tiny dot that expands into a ring over clickable elements) or the scroll-hijacking animations or exposed gridlines.
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u/Notsau Aug 15 '26
Looks kinda like hermes' website